426 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



when Madam Sewall put it off, it would sparkle as the rest of 

 her garments did." 



The astonishing behavior of Madam Sewall's garments, 

 or even of the petticoat of her sister Digges when worn 

 by her, was outrivaled by the performances of Madam 

 Digges herself, concerning which Clayton writes to Boyle 

 in 1684. Whether it was because Madam Sewall had 

 lately departed for England that Madam Digges felt it in- 

 cumbent upon herself to surpass the first-mentioned lady 

 in luminous manifestations, is unknown; but Clayton says 

 that she developed crepitations and shining flames about 

 her person, "and," adds the good parson, "how it should 

 transpire through the pores, and not be inflamed by the 

 joint motion and heat of the body, and afterwards so sud- 

 denly to be actuated into sparks by the shaking or brush- 

 ing of the coats, raises much my wonder." 



Such was the first electrical observation in the New 

 World. 



Whether a man of unusual inventive genius is a product 

 or a factor of the circumstances about him is always a 

 debatable question. We may believe, with Emerson, that 

 souls out of time, extraordinary, prophetic, are born who 

 are rather related to the system of the world than to their 

 particular age or locality, 1 or, contrariwise, with Froude, 

 that even the greatness of a Shakespeare is never more 

 than the highest degree of excellence, which prevails 

 widely, and in fact forms the environment. 2 We may 

 regard all invention as inspiration, or maintain that the 

 presence of the divine afflatus is not to be presumed, and 

 that upward progress is, on the whole, more commonly 

 made by way of the beanstalk which springs from the 

 ground than by way of the chariot descending from the 

 skies. 



A just apportionment of honor among men of the same 



1 Worship. * Science of History. 



